IOC stops payments to boxing federation AIBA

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday said it would not make any payments to the international boxing federation AIBA until problems over governance and finances are sorted out.

AIBA has been riven with in-fighting for months, with former president CK Wu first provisionally suspended and then stepping down in November after a bitter dispute with his executive committee.

Wu, an IOC member, was replaced by interim chief Franco Falcinelli and the federation will convene an extraordinary congress with its national member federations on Jan. 27 in Dubai to consider proposed changes to its governance.

“The IOC executive board has major concerns with regard to the situation within AIBA in different aspects,” IOC President Thomas Bach told reporters.

“There is the governance issues, there is the fact that financial statements have not been made fully transparent, there are still questions open with regard to judging, refereeing and anti-doping and therefore we have asked AIBA for a full report by the end of January.”

Bach said he wanted to see what measures AIBA would take to tackle the problems that have tarnished the federation. Wu remains an IOC member as his membership to the Olympic body does not depend on the AIBA presidency.

“We want to see the measures AIBA is taking to address these issues. Until things will change the IOC will not make any financial contributions to AIBA,” Bach said.

He said the next payment to AIBA would be in a few months for referees for next year’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

This is not the first time AIBA has IOC funds blocked.

The Olympic ruling body withheld payment of more than $1 million of television rights from the Athens 2004 Olympics after a refereeing scandal at those Games.